Welcome to Transfigurations! This blog is intended to serve the orthodox Anglican community and the wider Christian community. We pray that all that is posted here will be faithful to the Scriptures as the inspired word of God, speak the truth in love, edify, bless and transform this local body of Christ, and be an impetus for revival, repentance, prayer and intercession!

Thursday, August 11, 2016

There Is Only One We Dare Not Offend; The Cult Of Transgender...more

There Is Only One We Dare Not Offend Taking offense has become a national pastime in much of the West. Everyone seems to be getting offended about something. We have not only become an easily offended people, but we are even now making laws about all this. Vilification laws, hate speech laws, and the like are all about not offending anyone – or at least certain groups, such as Muslims, homosexuals, etc.

An entire industry has sprung up around the taking of offence. This has led to the death of public discussion and debate, since to simply disagree with someone today will mean they will run away crying about how they have been offended. It is leading, therefore, to the death of free speech.

It is typical of the secular left to easily take offence and thus short circuit free speech, but believers can do this as well. Increasingly we find Christians taking offence, for example, if you share any hard biblical truths. If you speak about sin, repentance, eternal judgment and such basic biblical doctrines, you will find plenty of nominal Christians taking offence.

I have even had Christians taking offence when I simply quoted Scripture. But this is not a completely recent phenomenon. The Bible actually speaks to this same matter. As I just read in my daily reading, Jeremiah had to chew out God’s people for doing this very thing...The Cult Of Transgender
...As a parent living the nightmare of having a teen who suddenly announces she’s transgender, I can tell you there are NO doctors who will do anything but agree. There is NO science behind this. There is NO way to medically “diagnose” her. Her therapist knows that she is not transgender but fears there’s no way we can stop her. Three of her closest friends have already had full transition, paid for by their parents, so it is difficult for her to understand why we won’t do the same. It is no different than having your child captured by a cult, only this time the cult is a societal bandwagon which wants to do permanent physical harm to her perfectly healthy female body, all in the name of “love”. As one of Rod’s sisters in the ancient faith, I ask for your prayers...

Instead, that targeting has helped the Drug Enforcement Administration seize a small fortune in cash.

DEA agents have profiled passengers on Amtrak trains and nearly every major U.S. airline, drawing on reports from a network of travel-industry informants that extends from ticket counters to back offices, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Agents assigned to airports and train stations singled out passengers for questioning or searches for reasons as seemingly benign as traveling one-way to California or having paid for a ticket in cash...

Offering a review of the latest edition of Dabiq, the sleekly-produced recruitment magazine of the murderous Islamic State, author of well-received, easily accessible histories Holland notes the developing contempt with which Christians are viewed.

Writing in The Times, he compares the previously preferable plight of Christians under Islamic State — stripped of their possessions and expelled from Islamic State-held territory — with the “horrors” inflicted on the apostate Yazidis, Holland points to the new taxonomy reserved for Christians...

California Bill Targeting Christian Colleges Modified After ResistanceIntense opposition from religious colleges in California has deterred legislation that would open up private religious institutions there to discrimination lawsuits from gay and transgender students. Critics of the legislation warn that new reporting requirements for religious institutions still in the bill could lay the groundwork for future laws that they insist will unfairly target schools adhering to religious beliefs.
State Senator Ricardo Lara announced today that he will drop the provision in his bill that would allow gay and transgender students to more easily sue private universities for discrimination if they are disciplined for violating church teachings.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Lara will press forward with the amended bill that would still require such schools to disclose if they have a religious exemption and report to the state when students are expelled for violating morality codes...